Nothing should be immune from moaning. In our minds, the only things that people don't really moan about are totalitarian violent dictatorships, and the stasi in our case seem to be the angry hoards who jump on non-compliant opinions on NSC, The Argus website, Twitter and the increasingly entertaining Albion Facebook page.
This is not to say that we have an opinion either way on club goings on (we aim to be the voice of a range of supporters, both agitators and apologists) but in this second wave* of alternative club media both official and non-official outlets actively want your opinions, good or bad.
Where there is inclusivity, transparency and liberty in making comments, there needs to be a level of respect and civility from all sides of what are essentially a very passionate, occasionally volatile, niche group of people.
Albion are like any normal organisation, the behaviours of the stakeholders vary, but only a select few have the ability to make decisions that have quite wide-ranging consequences. Us, the fans (in this model the proletariat, the workers etc etc) divide between those who are closely aligned to the club, and those who err to the left. The conservative and the radical, the liberal and the authoritarian. This is normal, roles interchange, there are times of deep emotional toil and peaks of ethereal, other-worldly joy. There is but one constant in our metamorphic fan culture; football.
Both our source of frustration and contentment, the constant is just a game, and one in which is almost entirely random and wonderfully out of our control. Organisations like order, that's how it works, yet chaos will always have a bigger role. In light of this, we should embrace that chaos in how we all think, how we all process what we see, and most importantly what we type after we've tried to make sense of it.
A new issue of The Seagull Love Review is making a home debut at The Amex on Sunday. The penultimate fanzine of the season, TSLR047, will be available in the usual places pre-match and under the North Stand after the game. It's packed full of the usual quality writing and still just £1, plus, because of big sales at Bolton Wanderers last week, we're close to selling out so grab one quick.
*First wave were fanzines in the 80s and 90s, the second wave was the un-edited internet mediums like forums and twitter.
This is not to say that we have an opinion either way on club goings on (we aim to be the voice of a range of supporters, both agitators and apologists) but in this second wave* of alternative club media both official and non-official outlets actively want your opinions, good or bad.
Where there is inclusivity, transparency and liberty in making comments, there needs to be a level of respect and civility from all sides of what are essentially a very passionate, occasionally volatile, niche group of people.
Albion are like any normal organisation, the behaviours of the stakeholders vary, but only a select few have the ability to make decisions that have quite wide-ranging consequences. Us, the fans (in this model the proletariat, the workers etc etc) divide between those who are closely aligned to the club, and those who err to the left. The conservative and the radical, the liberal and the authoritarian. This is normal, roles interchange, there are times of deep emotional toil and peaks of ethereal, other-worldly joy. There is but one constant in our metamorphic fan culture; football.
Both our source of frustration and contentment, the constant is just a game, and one in which is almost entirely random and wonderfully out of our control. Organisations like order, that's how it works, yet chaos will always have a bigger role. In light of this, we should embrace that chaos in how we all think, how we all process what we see, and most importantly what we type after we've tried to make sense of it.
A new issue of The Seagull Love Review is making a home debut at The Amex on Sunday. The penultimate fanzine of the season, TSLR047, will be available in the usual places pre-match and under the North Stand after the game. It's packed full of the usual quality writing and still just £1, plus, because of big sales at Bolton Wanderers last week, we're close to selling out so grab one quick.
*First wave were fanzines in the 80s and 90s, the second wave was the un-edited internet mediums like forums and twitter.
2 comments:
What was with the repeat article
Ah, yep, sorry about that. The first batch of TSLR047 - only available at Bolton - was printed incorrectly. Email us your postal address and we'll send you a corrected version.
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